Syracuse, N.Y. -- In 1996, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim had a pair of big guards in Lazarus Sims and Jason Cipolla.
Sims was a fifth-year senior, who became a starter when Michael Lloyd abruptly left school the previous summer. Cipolla was a junior college transfer tasked who beat out Marius Janulis for the opportunity to replace Lawrence Moten in the starting lineup.
Neither was a lock-down man-to-man defender. But they were both tall and long and very instinctive defensive players.
That's when Boeheim fully committed to the 2-3 zone defense.
"Before 1996, we played mostly man,'' Wayne Morgan, who was an assistant coach at Syracuse from 1984 to 1996, said recently.